The baptistry in which St. Francis de Sales was baptized.
About a year ago the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales, a lay organization for women to grow in their lives as Christians through the teachings of the Salesian tradition, contacted me about accompanying them as they walk in the footsteps of Saints Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal, and Margaret Mary Alacoque. I, of course, enthusiastically said yes, as I had never been to France and was excited at the prospect of visiting the many sites associated with our Salesian Family heritage. And so, the last week of September and the first week of October, I embarked on the incredible and beauty-filled journey to our spiritual family’s homeland.
Fr. Craig Irwin, OSFS, in Annecy, France.
As we drove through the mountains of eastern France, I reflected on Francis de Sales riding through there on horseback, visiting his diocese’s parishes or going to Paris on a diplomatic mission. As we visited the very first Visitation Monastery, and I said Mass at the Basilica of the Visitation, where Jane and Francis are buried, I thought about those earliest days when the Visitation was just a dream and a hope. As I walked the narrow and winding streets of many medieval cities, the very ones where Jane and Francis likely walked, I was filled with awe at the amazing things that came from the smallest and humblest of beginnings.
Stained glass window of St. Francis and St. Jane inside the Basilica of the Visitation.
And now, as I sit in my rectory pondering all this, I can’t help but be struck by that phrase “walk in their footsteps.” So often we get caught up in the big and grand story of history and all that we know of these saints and what their words and lives mean to millions today. But, as I walked along the streets and prayed in the churches where they did, it reminded me that they were real people. These aren’t mere stories that we tell. It isn’t some stagnant history to just be read from books. The conversations that happened while riding and walking these streets, the letters sent by messengers along these routes, the homilies and confessions heard in these chapels and churches… these were the humble beginnings that brought about the great heritage that we know today.
So, the question arises: what sorts of things are happening all around us right now that are the beginnings of incredible and world-changing spiritual endeavors? Will one of the students in our schools be inspired by the Salesian tradition to start something that changes the face of the Church and the world as we know it? Will the streets and churches of our towns and cities be ones that pilgrims someday walk along and think “Wow… It all started here, with conversations and text messages and homilies as people went about their daily lives?”
Let us live our lives in such a way that, in living the little moments well, we inspire new generations of Christians to continue expanding our Salesian family and allow people to see and know Jesus Christ walking the earth again.
Fr. Craig Irwin, OSFS
Associate Pastor
Gesu Catholic Church, Toledo, OH
